I am currently 27 years old and married to a man with hydrocephalus.
When we first met and for the first couple of years, yes, I knew he
was slower and that he had to take anti-seizure medication but it
wasn't a big deal. I did NOT know that he had hydrocephalus or what
it was. His parents (and him as well) always told me it was "a
football injury."

Well, it wasn't. After we were married and I became pregnant with our
first child, I was going through medical histories and found the
Hydrocephalus in Brandon's file. What I found out surprised me. He
has had Hydrocephalus since birth! His mother contracted Rubella
while she was pregnant with him and they believe this is what caused
his Hydrocephalus. Apparently he has almost died several times and
has had numerous shunt revisions.

A little over a year ago, he began having issues with his
gallbladder... when the surgeon went in to remove his gallbladder, he
found much to his distress, on of my husband's old shunts that had
broken off and fallen into the abdominal cavity wrapped around the
gallbladder. Apparently when they replaced the broken shunt, they
never retrieved it.

In the last couple of years, my husband has begun getting worse. His
maturity level has gone down, his emotions run rampant, the
occurances of seizures was more often, he was lying to me ALL the
time, competing with the children for attention, throwing VIOLENT
temper tantrums, his depth perception which was already sketchy
became non-existent and his balance/coordination became non-
noteworthy as well.

I could NOT get him to go to neurologist, instead he kept going to
the same family doctor he has been seeing for the last 29 years. That
doctor just kept upping his Tegretol dosage.

Finally I gave him an ultimatum. Go to the Neurologist or I'm
leaving. So last summer we finally made a trip. We found out that my
husband was taking 3x the daily recommended dosage for a person his
size and that the Tegretol had caused brain damage. I was also told
by the neurologist that while Tegretol is fine for short term
treatment, it was TOXIC and NOT fine for long term.

Six months later, my husband is taking 125 mg of Lamictal 2x daily.
He is mentally and emotionally at about the level of a 14 or 15 year
old and to be quite honest, my 4 year is often more mature than he
is. He has lost his job and I am currently making him stay home and
watch the children since I can't afford a babysitter. He still lies
to me ALL the time and goes to the local firehall to drink beer all
the time (which he KNOWS he's not supposed to do). We now have
nothing except medical bills and they just keep piling up. Last week
he had a terrible seizure where he propelled himself 8 feet across
the room and hit his head. Resulting in my calling the ambulance.

I am so close to calling it quits and just walking away, except for I
know that if I do he will go in a downward spiral.

I just don't know what to do anymore.